Ep.211 w/ Dylan Davis/Double D Vintage-Having fun in the hobby

Transcript

lk to my next guest on Esports card shop at Moco guest line

this next gentleman is a content creator uh himself obviously a hobbyist as well

man this guy is energetic and passionate I don't know if I can match that today but have my work uh cut out for me uh he

hails from Sunny Hawaii while we're here in snowy Syracuse but without further

Ado uh let's welcome Dylan Davis uh Double D vintage to sports car Nation

welcome Dylan thanks John thanks for having me this is uh a surreal experience for me since uh

well I'm go ahead no go ahead well I was gonna say listen you know

this is two guys you know talking about the hobby of things we both are are

passionate care about and love and love talking about so uh but I appreciate that but go you go ahead as well yeah I

mean it this whole thing has been a whirlwind for me because I I've been collecting baseball cards my

whole life since I was six years old and you know 1985 86 um maybe even before that some movie

cards and stuff like that from the vending machines but the last year I dove into YouTube and

creating my own content and really putting my opinions out in the world at

first I just wanted to talk about certain things design of cards and things like that and then I I just I'm

really letting myself out there and to be on a show like yours that I truly just respect and I listen to religiously

it's an honor for me to be on here since I haven't been in this world with other

people my whole life and now that I'm doing it I'm meeting guys that it just

it it blows my mind it's a weird experience for me to actually have somebody want to talk to me about

baseball cards and it's been exciting and uh and I really am honored to be on

your show so thank you so much for having me well I thank you for accepting and coming on and Dylan one thing that Drew

me to you I know we've chatted and talked about you know you listened to the show and being a fan and all that

but that frankly that's not why uh you're on the show uh you're on the show

because you know and watching your content like you just mentioned on YouTube you you it's what I said right

you're energetic you're passionate you care uh uh you're having fun and those

are some of the best and genuine right those are some of the things we need more of quite frankly uh in the hobby

can never have enough even when you have a lot the more of that you have uh the better off you are you know people ask

me you know quite frequently you know John hey I'm thinking about starting my own Show YouTube or taking around

starting my own podcast any tips any advice and I said let's you know I don't

want to I don't you know I'm not a girl through anything but the one thing I always kind of say it's easy is have fun

right because if you're not having fun with with what you're doing what are we doing here right so have fun be yourself

that's my my you know those two things kind of go together because if you be

yourself that comes through right people know when you're being phony and and

disingenuous and all that terrible stuff uh people can see right through it they can smell it

um and that's you know that's not that's not good but when you're yourself

um people respect that and even if they don't agree with you all the time they'll respect that because you're

you're being honest you're being yourself and uh and have fun those are the two biggest uh the two biggest

devices I give when I'm asked and and you're doing that and I didn't give you

that advice but you you you're doing that you're doing a great job of it and I enjoy watching that kind of content

um and learning from it myself as well so you know what I guess we'll start

there uh Dylan you know what was it that what was the I'm sure you thought about

doing it what was the fine what was what pushed you over dad and said hey we're we're doing this

well awesome question and you know I just have

I've had this obsession with baseball cards it takes me to a place that anytime I look at one anytime I you know

I sell baseball cards on eBay I've been doing it for 20 years since 2001 I think

my account says you know when it was like dial up I was on there trying to figure it out like 99 you know like and

I just I have an addiction to these things and every time I look at one it takes me to that that place when I was a

kid going to my local baseball cards plus and and with my friends rollerblading they are riding bikes and

it and I I just really didn't know that there was a place that I could share this with until I started

listening to a podcast and podcasts I listened to for about 10 years before I even knew there was baseball card

podcasts like I don't know what I was doing like why didn't I just type in hey baseball cards I didn't know I was just

like the history and all kinds of different podcasts right and I did audible books forever I was always

audible in all the vintage baseball card players I could possibly find every Mickey Mantle and Hank Aaron Willie Mays

and Babe Ruth book that is on Audible I probably already read it like hundreds

and hundreds of stuff and then I found Mike moynihan's podcast which I talked about and I was lucky enough to be on

his show and that was another surreal experience for me because it's just like a whirlwind thing it's all having you so

fast well after watching his content and listening or I should say listening

to his content for about a year I he kept talking about YouTube and he's like yeah all these are on YouTube so I

was like YouTube man I really don't want to have another thing in my phone I I don't want to do that I have a Instagram

right and I have Miss Palm I do pawns and I build pawns and and I raise koi

and turtles so I have this Instagram in there it's enough work as it is and so I'm like do I really want another thing

but I finally I got on YouTube started watching I go man this is sick I'm watching these guys and they're showing

baseball cards and I'm like I've never seen that and I don't have card shows because I'm from Hawaii or I live in

Hawaii originally from Hawaii but the last six years I've been here I have no baseball cards over here except for

three guys we have a little community of us they're all old guys guys that were

opening packs of you know 1950 cards and 60s cards I'm very good friends of these guys I talked to them on a weekly basis

um there's there's no there's nothing bigger than that and so me watching these YouTube channels I'm just like

dude these guys are on here just sharing cards check this card out so me I was just baffled and my mind was just blown

away and I go man that's what I want to do so really what pushed me over the edge is Mike did these episodes on your

favorite sets the favorite sets from 1950s 60s 70s and I think you went to

the 80s and I was like in listening on the podcast and then watching and like

raising my hand going dude I wanna I wanna put my opinion out there that's not the best one this is the best one I

I'm all about designing cards I just stare at cards because I have a wall here my wife is a graphic designer and

an artist and so she's in that world and she always looks you know I'm always I'm

always making her look at my wall I'm like hey check this card out what do you think about this one and she'll give opinion so this YouTube thing I just

like what got over the edge I'll be honest with you I was scared to death because my Instagram with my Pawn thing

I never put my face on Instagram my Facebook is private it's only for my

friends and family that I went to high school with and stuff just those type things I didn't think I'd be able to

speak like doing this to me if you would have said I was going to be doing this

a year ago you know I would have just been like you're out of your mind I would have never been able to do it I

would have been nervous and scared so one night I had Lauren is my wife she

had a friend over and I was serving cocktails today and we were having conversations and then we came into the

card room and I had some drinks and then we started talking I was showing her Jackie Robinson cards which is right up

your alley and I was telling her she didn't know the history of Jackie Robinson blew my mind I was like all all

over the place with all these guys and I focused on Jackie Robinson because that movie um 42 and I go you gotta watch that

movie we talked for like an hour she was super thrilled about it and so when she

went next door I said I'm gonna do a video so I I drank I was drinking I was

like buzzed up and I go I'm doing a video put myself on camera and I did a

video and that was how I entered this world and my world has been like

it has been absolutely incredible anyone who's like on the fence of doing

um putting themselves out there and I just just be yourself I I just love it

it's just that so you just you just you just basically jumped you just jumped in yeah you just said sometimes that's the

best way to do it Dylan you know it's funny hearing you say like you know like a year ago if you would

have told me I would be doing this or doing that I think you I think you were crazy you know I've said that on my show

like if you when I was a kid I was the shyest kid ever like I'd hide behind my

grandparents and uh kind of quiet uh even in school like even when I had to

use the restroom I'd be scared to ask the teacher to to be excused so I could

go I'd hold it in all day thankfully I lived across the street from from the

school in New York city so as soon as I got picked up I basically made a beeline

home to to use the restroom um so if you would have told you know

the younger version of me some of the stuff I would be doing as an older

person you know I would have thought you're crazy too and I'm not even just talking uh content that that alone but

coaching Varsity Sports you know which I did for for four years uh baseball and

football having parent meetings uh being a teacher and and and you know

working with younger kids all that stuff you know even I've been blessed to to

talk on the national main stage you know if you would have told me the younger version of myself that's some of the

things you're gonna you're gonna do when you get older I would say I don't even want to do that stuff I'm not doing I'm

shy I'm there I'm shy I'm nervous I don't want that's not my thing and yet

you know uh I I've done that stuff and so sometimes you know for me

it wasn't so much just a spot in it spotting an a spot in an 80s

spontaneous thing hey I can't speak English all the time um you know it wasn't that like in your

case for me I think when you get older um my mind was sort of shyness and and

being reserved but I think when you get older and you're shy and you're reserved

and you you because you're worried about what everyone's gonna think of you if I like do something wrong or I you know

and I think you get as you get older you you not that you don't care but you're

like you know what I I I'm who I am I'm gonna be me and if someone likes me

awesome and if they don't it is what it is and I think you lose that sort of

inhibition where that self-consciousness if you will and that's what it was for

me to start doing you know stuff more out in front uh than than being shy and

reserved but uh you know what the way you did it too is the way sometimes you just gotta take that plunge take that

leap and just say hey I'm gonna have fun I'm gonna be me like like you do and uh

Nala's note and then I'll turn it back now right so yeah let me let me add to that John

because a lot of things in my life I I I'm like when I was in high school you know a lot

of people see me on ins on YouTube and they're like man he's the most he's the most outgoing guy he's so fired up you

know what I'm fired up because I love baseball cards I was the guy like you and I didn't want

to stand in front of people and talk to my peers like that's insane like so scary but my wife she's an artist

she's a very she's an introvert she's very shy but she's so talented but a few

years ago about four years ago she she went on her own and she she worked at freelance art for all these different

companies for like 10 years but then she stepped out and did it on her own and we do our boots I run my own art shop

tomorrow at a at a farmer's market just like you do at your card shows I sell her art and then I set her up as well so

she was my inspiration and she was always telling me you need to do you need to do a YouTube you need to do this

and and watching her Blossom and letting her passion shine was a way was a really

a big push for me and just a jump all in and just like when I told my wife that I

loved her and I was in love with her before we were married you know this is

probably 15 years ago it was a moment that I said it right it was a moment in

time that I jumped in on that decision and I said that's I I love you I'm in

love with you you know we were out and we were having drinks and it and it it just not that everything has to do with

drinking right but it was like these moments in my life it just lets the in it lets my inhibitions come out on those

those moments and it let what I really wanted to say come out and I tell my

wife all the time anytime if I'm having a drink or anything anything that comes out on the mouth while I'm drinking is

honesty I'm not yeah I don't drink that I don't drink a lot so it's like if I'm gonna drink what comes out of mouth you

can take it as gold because that's just you know so I I owe my wife so much

credit in this whole Endeavor and letting myself become me and this Pat and just like having a having friends in

this yeah it's been it's been incredible yeah again that shines through and and

you know that stuff's refreshing when someone is just uh energetic passionate cares about and loves loves talking

about it uh with uh with fellow Hobbies then uh you check all those you check

all those boxes I I want to talk about Hawaii I know you said you're not originally from there but you're there

now like I've never been to Hawaii so maybe it's easy for me to say like man

if I was in Hawaii like I'm a seafood guy like fishing I don't know if I'd collect cards anymore I think I'm

kidding I'm kidding but like I mean Hawaii just seems like such a fun state so much stuff to do you know to collect

cards uh you know stuff would draw you away from that you ever find that or or

not not really uh cards are like cards are great for me because I surf

I'm a surfer I've surf my whole life my wife is a surfer she's an old professional long but she's not old but

she's an ex-professional longboarder and I tried to become a professional Surfer in my time but I never quite made it but

I today I served for two hours yesterday so for five hours so I do all these

things and then I can come into the card room and my eBay thing and I can it's a

it's a good happy place for me like a good like okay relax and just sit down

at your desk and and a lot of people you know not Hawaii's not for everybody like

if you love to do outdoors things you love fishing Johnny come over here I'll take you out on my Zodiac and we'll go

fish the rivers we'll go fish in the ocean it's mind-blowing and you can do

that for ages but since I'm a surfer I pretty much just surf all the time my

the beach I live right by the beach so I can walk to the beach and to go fishing right on the beach and catch fish

I don't get sidetracked from you know it's not like I would

I'm not going to lose my passion for cards I never have and it and for me

being over here I gave up a huge I had a job full time for 20 years on the

mainland and I gave that up because my wife's born and raised here so she's

from here her old family's here so we came up with a crazy plan you know where I married or we're gonna be coming

over here um and I wasn't against it I was all four because I'm a surfer but when you

come over I I had to figure out what I'm gonna do and I was already selling cards on eBay so for me cards was like uh if I

can't make it selling cards it's been my dream my whole life is to make a living selling cards then

I'm I'm just I mean quite frankly I told my dad I'm like dude I'm just dumb if I

can't make a living selling cards now now let me just say I also have another business that I do yards for a living I

have a yard business but the card thing is is always been my dream it's always been my passion and this YouTube thing

has kept me focused and I am all in on I

literally on I've been dropping clients left and right because my wife's business is really booming and I'm

really gonna be focusing on the sports card world for the distance as far as I

can see and I want to go to shows I'm gonna I'm selling so much stuff on eBay I I can't even I get so excited talking

about baseball gardening it's just ah yeah I just can't I can't handle it so I

don't know that's yeah well that took listen passion is a

passion is a good thing sometimes people need could use more of that right

um sticking out into Hawaii you mentioned there's really not a lot of card shows or card shops where you are

is if someone lived where you are I mean obviously give that out to Hawaii like

where you know obviously you're you're getting you mention eBay you're selling there I'm sure you buy some stuff there

is there anywhere where you live like where there's no car shows at all or cars no lcs's at all at this point okay

well I have one LCS it's an hour from my house and we call

it town it's what we call it and it's it's a toy store as well but the the

main guy his name is Sheldon great guy um he does a card show every month now

the car show consists of four tables okay so every month I go it's on a

Saturday and there's two vintage guys there during the boom was pretty crazy there's more like eight tables a lot of

guys selling basketball modern stuff you know like but I was just gravitated to these two guys their tables so the last

five six years I go over there and I hang out with them the the guy who owns the card Shop's

been in my room we've hung out in here um I've had a couple of my fellow guys that live over here so I can buy cards

but it's not like a card shop on the mainland there's a lot of other stuff in

there his first there was like probably 10 Blaster boxes total for sale and you

would open the blasters and sell the packs individually okay that's how small it was it is his his business boomed

over the last couple years so it's been good to see and now he has like he's got enough boxes where I can go in there and

you know buy plenty of cards if I want but he's a basketball and a Pokemon collector so as far as the world I'm in

because I'm a vintage guy yeah it's just it's just these two old guys that I've

bought pretty much all the cards that they have that I want to purchase and and I and that's it so I'm I'm kind of

stuck it's like I gotta fly I could I can fly yes sir I can fly to

California where I used to you know born and raised in card shops there and I have done that

um but yeah as far as that it's it's tough for sure yeah yeah for sure but you know the the

obviously social media selling platforms eBay being the largest one of course but

other ones as well have sort of made the world a smaller place where you can live you know in Hawaii and still acquire and

and sell cards a question I want to ask you as a seller myself right it's the

old dilemma you ever have you ever have a you know a dilemma that's probably the

best word wear your card you're like man I want to keep this but I also kind of I know I can sell it you know that that

fine line be between being a collector and a dealer or something in the Personal Collection or in the inventory

you ever you ever get in those situations all the time John I mean I'm

going through right now I'm selling so much stuff I'm switching because of YouTube messes with my brain and in a

good way I'm switching all my I collected everything like I don't know

if you ever heard of this place called the pit but the pit was around I don't know in the 2000s so I was thinking I

was like our I was like a they call it Arbitrage right you buy something here you sell it for more somewhere else I

and in 90 in 2000 right after high school I graduated 99 so 2000 to 2004. I

was buying sight unseen because a PSA 7 was a seven they took one picture on the

pit and you just clicked yeah okay I want to buy so I was buying them and no one really knew that existed and I was

selling them on eBay as auctions and I was crushing it but I got in a big pickle because I was keeping too many so

your question that I had I was keeping so many of these so I got behind on a credit card and no one taught me that I

could have just waited to sell some more and and paid a you know uh whatever fee

it was and paid the credit card off the next month I always told you how to pay a credit card off every month which I do

now and I and I did then yeah but I got into a pickle and so since then you know I've learned my

lesson but with that said yeah I come across it all the time but I'm not scared anymore to sell the card because

the things that I collect there are all just standard tops issue they're not rare I can find another one and if I let

go of it trust me I'm spending that money on Sports Cards I'm I'm buying

more so it's not like I don't care even if it's the mic the

only cards I won't sell are cards that you know I physically have a connection with where I bought them in the flesh

from somebody or you know we all have those stories but most of my cards especially because where I live and even

then I was too scared to talk to dealers I go to card shows all the time went to Frank and Sons in California

twice a week for years for like 10 years those old guys were so grumpy they

didn't talk to me about nothing so I was on my own right so eBay was always the best and and the pit I would just buy

them and so I I don't have like this physical connection uh like this piece

of cardboard no if it's in a slab except for a few you know except for maybe 50

of my slabs they're just that card in a slab and I I have no problem selling it

I'll just upgrade it and I'll just buy one that I appreciate that's how I've been yeah it's funny

because when I you know during my store days 92 to 97 it's one of those things

like if I could go back like it was you know I just kept like I didn't put everything out and I just if I could

have a mall again you know we did well we did well for you know I had a partner in the store we did well for that six

years the first year we we our overhead our lot of our startup costs were were

pricey um and so the first year there was almost uh there was wasn't on there

almost wasn't a second year but we we stuck it out and uh started doing a lot

better but one of my store faux pas was a lot of times I would just not put

something out and keep it and uh you know and the older I got you know I was in my 20s uh in the 90s

um you know the older I got the the less attached if you will uh to the car that

doesn't mean I don't care about them or love them what I just sort of learned by by trial and error that like you said

you can upgrade you can replace it um you know unless it's one of those just super rare cards uh and um you know

something along those lines you cannot like your jacket yeah I mean that's not for sale so yeah

you're gonna have those cards and you have those type of cards as as well too and those are no-brainers right but some

of the other stuff that's uh a little bit easier to replace we'll say it that way you just learn to like not get too

attached and uh let them go so someone else can enjoy them and if you ever want to get it back again you can whenever

that you know that uh that bonds I need to to do so so I I was curious as a

fellow seller you know if you ever run across those situations it was kind of it was nice hearing you say yeah you

know sometimes uh uh that that that happens so so let's talk you know you

talk about your displays uh anyone who's seen your YouTube program and obviously

I'm I'm anyone watching this video a week or two after the podcast is now seeing them they're behind you too talk

about the displays who made these um are they customize I mean they're

your displays talk about uh you know who built them and and all about all that

good stuff about them gladly my favorite conversations of all displays I've my whole life have been

about displaying your baseball cards as a kid growing up going to these sports

shop going to these sports card shops there's one on Beach Boulevard in particular is next to a doll museum I

know there's people out there that will know what this is there was a little meat uh amusement park

I used to go there with my family when I was young and my sister we they I go in the dollar Museum as well it's huge but

they had a card shop there and they had a huge wall of vintage baseball cards and and that and they just I just like

you know I was just magical to me so my whole life I've had displays in my

closet I I've you know anywhere I could display cards I display them in my sheds

like yeah you know once I got older I had sheds in my in my

in the backyard I I literally I would bring out my slabs and I'd put them in my shed and I'd have them up not

thinking about sun glare or like sun damage just like wanted to see him right and so my wife has always been good

letting me have these displays we had one in I had a couple of glass displays

in our pantry you know in California like eight years ago and it's just a

place for me a little dark area and go in there and check out my cards well when we moved over here

to Hawaii you know we got a much bigger place and we have a whole room that's just a museum and my wife also collected

I wouldn't say she's a collector per se um she doesn't collected anything now but she saved all her toys from her

childhood as did I so we always wanted to display that stuff and of course I

was going to have my baseball cards displayed as well so I started on one wall I built everything from scratch I

cut every single piece of wood um when I came over here I was doing carpentry work or I was doing

construction I was working for my wife's dad he's a contractor and I vowed never

to do that in a million years I took a year off when we moved over here just to just uh take a year off I worked for 20

years so I basically retired and like I said I was going to sell baseball cards for a living but you know it's to list a

hundred thousand baseball cards it takes forever so I you know that is like okay keep doing that but

so the wall was like a good practice for me I cut everything by hand and it

started with toys and a small baseball card area because I didn't want them in the light right

and then it grew and expanded and it is what you see today which is the entire

wall and then another wall there's about 200 cards displayed and I bought I

ordered Museum grade glass and I cut it myself

and I have that up and I also tinted all of our windows with the darkest possible

UV protection tint and then I have curtains that is my wife's design over top and then on the outside wall I have

uh I mean this is this uh this is how crazy I am I have um the shade material you'll see it at

Home Depot I have that hanging so the light doesn't hit the wall of the house and get the cards hot because some of

the cards are against the wall of the outside wall right so I didn't want the I didn't want the wall to heat up and

heat the cards up from the outside all the windows are painted I have a big window up top I just painted it and I

put a plywood on the outside so this you come in here it's like Vegas you don't know what time it is you just get to

work and my wife has a museum wall a museum display this way um is all her artwork that she's done

for companies so I think as a collector to have displays in your house is like

if you don't have it I can't recommend it enough it's the greatest thing you could ever do because you walk into your

own card shop every day you come home I sit in my bed and I have the light switch to my card wall that you're

seeing right here if you're watching yeah and I I click it on and I'll sit in my bed and I'll and I'll just like look

at it you know from way over there and we just get inspired when you come in this room I have my childhood toys my

wife's childhood toys which you'll see right here you know they're just we have them all in order of years and I built

everything from scratch and did everything that took years like took about two years to complete everything

like the whole room is full circle if I ever did a video the entire room has displays all the way around it

um and the baseball card display room my dream one day is to literally have the

entire an entire room circled with baseball cards um it will happen just hasn't happened

yet I also have a surfboard room that I built that has just surfboards in my surfboard trophies and displays and so

man if you're out there and you don't and you don't have your cards displayed you've got to have like yours behind you

you got your jacket out there and you got your big you got your balls when you walk in that room you're in there you're

in your world in a little hard space right it just puts you in that yeah well that's you make it so that you make a

great Point Dylan yeah you love the hobby right you love whatever you collect whatever you

collect we're we're here talking about cards you mentioned toys with your your wives and your childhood toys but

whatever it is uh right you want to see it right just having them in the dark or

in the closet now I get you know you can't put everything out necessarily you gotta you gotta pick and choose

sometimes that's that's that's also fun in itself as well what makes it absolutely and what doesn't but you know

to have everything kind of put away that's not really that much fun and you

want to see them uh you know especially some of the more significant ones or some that really hit a uh you know on on

your heartstrings or hit a cord or as some sort of um you know symbolic relationship you

know for me obviously it's that Jackie rookie is the the number one card but uh it's not just that card right there's I

have other cards uh as you as you pointed out I feel a little bit insignificant because you're talking

about uh Shades and specially cut especially Museum glass cut by you you

know someone asked me the other a couple weeks back Dylan like with the cards behind me they're graded cards uh uh in

the show your slabs case I have some that way that aren't on camera and someone asked me the car because the

window is right here and the light obviously comes in there uh during the daytime and someone asked me John what

do you do to protect the cards that are behind where you're sitting those graded cards because they're all Hall of Fame

graded rookies they're probably some of the better better part of my collection and uh after hearing you I really

my answer was the chair I'm sitting in when I'm not in it I literally put it up

against it so it's blocking uh the sunlight I feel like that's now I feel

like that's definitely uh not enough after hearing uh all the but you know

what I'm joking but I'll joking aside uh those are all great points right you

want to project protect uh you know I know people hate the I word right the

environment word but John let me tell you yeah you you've got to block those windows like I could prove to you I did

an experiment I bought you the UV glasses Museum grade UV glass I put cards behind it I put them in the

windows one without UV Protection One with for two years and I wanted to see

what happened to these cards I still have them they all faded and the ones without it

faded way worse than the ones but I have toys that we had before I had all my cards I had my cards really low before

in a small section some of our toys faded out and we didn't even I didn't have all the windows stuff

up but on I see people's windows open I'm like oh my gosh you got to cover that I have an AC unit running in here

always at 70 degrees I I'm like crazy out of my mind but I live in Hawaii too

so humidity is huge so you gotta have AC and then in my safes I have these things

that collect moisture you know and then you can plug them in and recharge them I'm really big on all that stuff I did

tons of research because it's you know you're these cards aren't cheap and it's

and it's all fun and games but this is this is our live you know there's a lot

of money invested in these things and and their Investments period I don't care how you look at it I know

I totally yeah no you have them married yeah no you're great points right you

want to protect anything right you just like you protect your house right you you do stuff to protect your house why

not protect the stuff in your house now I do have blinds and shades that do come

down so I I know I made it sound like the sun just listening

from God well that's what I tell people when they

ask you what do I do I said put the chair right up against it so that blocked it I got the shades and we don't

get much sun in Syracuse anyway so uh between the the combination combination

of all those things uh so far uh so good but yeah you you got to think about stuff even even temperature control you

know and everyone thinks because a card is graded and it's in that plastic encapsulate encapsulation that could

they can still fade right through those those are not you know I know they they are some of them have better UV

protection than other ones but they're not a hundred percent uh foolproof and

so the more safeguards you can put in place to protect the cars that mean so much to you and listen some of them cost

more uh than others again that Jackie uh is one of my most expensive purchases so

uh you wanna you know you want to protect I don't even have you know it's usually if I'm filming or something I

have but uh there's many times like you said you mentioned safe that's a great I'll put it in there uh as well so uh

especially I'm not if I'm if I'm not going if I'm not gonna be home or I'm traveling it's definitely not just

sitting out on my desk I'm literally I mean every

Jackie and I go I'm just like blasting on that thing and

then your car your balls autographs I think about I think about that stuff and watch me videos hey John can I ask you a

question I'm sure you can what you said I I think

if I heard you right 92 you started your shop what your store what years did you start your store yep

1992 to 97. so you were in like to me

that was that was like the toughest time almost ever yes in a shop right because

it was coming to the 93 it was like the end of the the bubble it it was but in

this you know in the area we were in it was still you know it was still kind of uh very busy what did it you know my

exit you know we talked about eBay earlier Dylan eBay was my way to get out

of the store and here's what I mean by then I did an episode it's way back when one of my early uh episodes was uh

wasn't even I it wasn't I wasn't even really doing guests like I do now is just kind of me and sports car Nation I

did an episode called eBay the blessing and the curse and I talked about this so I'll give you sort of my Cliff Notes

response rather than where he has to so you know eBay was was new then it was

not the eBay we know he here in 2022 it was really just sort of taken a foothold

so people were coming to the store and saying John or Angelo that was my

partner hey I can I can get this on this eBay auction site for 20 bucks you got

it for 25. can you can you match that or can you you know get close to that and

then we had you know we had a decision to make where we take less and and make the sale and that was starting to happen

more and more as eBay became more mainstream and more popular

and one of the things you know I was 20 when I started the store in 92 born in

72 you know and I was a big rock guy and going to rock shows but a lot of my friends hey we're we're going out of

state we're going to see this band right you want to go and a lot of you know 80 percent of the time I had to say no I

can't do it I gotta I gotta be at the store so I it was yeah I don't want to make this sound terrible but not a

prison but I was sort of tied to the store where I was losing opportunities

to do 20 year old things 20 year olds do and so now eBay was coming along and we

were sort of competing against this invisible card store that was everywhere not not two miles up the road uh and

that sort of thing and so you know I thought about and now we're now we're in 96 and 97 eBay is definitely uh really

becoming a a tour de force in its own right and I just said man you know I can

I I'm still 25 I can still do a lot of these fun things but uh I you know I can

put all my inventory on eBay and sell you know go to sleep and make a sale

overnight while I'm sleeping right can't do that in the in the card store right no one's there it's closed the doors are

locked um and I just sort of weighed sort of these pros and cons and then I finally

just decided like it wasn't so much this store doing bad we were still doing well but I'm like I can just do shows in the

Northeast which I love to travel and set up at shows that was the other thing sometimes with the store you can't do

shows as as much too because now you're taking stuff out of showcases and now

it's not in there for customers in the store it just became game like I had a show I had show inventory store

inventory and then I just you know I just the the light bulb went on and I just said I can list stuff on eBay I can

travel and do these shows in the Northeast you know uh here in New York Massachusetts Ohio Pennsylvania

Connecticut travel uh when my buddies say hey we're doing this you want to go

uh I can go most of the time and so I decided I was gonna you know get out of

the store based on all those factors and you know I I had dinner one night with

my partner after you know after uh working in the store with them and just

told them what was what I was kind of thinking and over the course of the next week you know he was very supportive he

wasn't mad and all right you know you sure you know you sure you want to do this and you know like and we just we

worked out you know because we ate we had our own inventories and then we had sort of our shared inventory so the only

thing we had to do was come up with a price on that shared inventory which we did he bought me out and I started doing

you know doing the Northeast with shows eBay I start listing on eBay and and

it's funny this was still in the time you know there was no PayPal or venmo so bad money orders

you get to check in the mail and you would chip out you know so selling the card was actually a a two to three week

uh process but uh you know it worked even for that time it's what we what we

had at the time right and so I was doing that and um you know I missed a little

bit of the storm but uh on some days but uh you know was also nice to sort of

have that freedom at 25 26 uh again and uh you know so uh you know that's for me

you know I'm glad I did the store I get asked even now Dylan you know would I ever do a store again and and

you never say never right the old cliche line the situation would just have to be

so right and make sense and I always joke my son even asked me and I talked

about this you know I'd love if I ever did a store again I'd love to do it uh in Cooperstown New York where the

Baseball Hall of Fame is it's only 70 minutes from me you know uh I have a you

know one of my dreams is like buying a a storefront that has like a residence

above it and you know opening the card store kind of living there when I need

to what kind of commute you know it's only 60 70 minutes but rather than maybe commute back and forth every day stay

there a couple days come home what as whatever the schedule dictates and and that sort of thing so that's that's

always a thought I'm not doing anything to pursue it it's just sort of a dream yeah that sounds awesome yeah a dream

that I'm not necessarily trying to make happen but you know if it was to happen I you know would it would be fun uh for

sure but uh you know I don't regret my store days at all I mean it just

uh you know just the path you take and uh you know maybe someday I'll do it

again but right now I just I time wise it's just uh I don't know where I'd make

that time and uh you know but uh uh I I'm an LCS guy right I'm supportive of

them uh they're important uh part of the hobby um I got my start uh not so much from

enough but you know I got my starboard a couple packs on a on a you know a corner store not a card store but you

know I really got went nose dived in the hobby was going to a card store and the

owner put me to work I was there so much I just start working there doing shows with them kind of cut my teeth and

learned learned about the Hobby and the business side of it and then did my

first show at 15 years old and the you know the rest is is history but uh so

LCS has mean a lot to me even though I don't I'm not an LCS owner anymore I

think they're an important part you know we talk about eBay right it's great to to buy anything you know you can't sleep

it's three in the morning you pick up your phone you can buy a card you've been pursuing right that's that's a

great yeah but there's nothing that beats to me uh in person

you know getting to hold that card in your hand and looking at it and

examining it and and making the perch and and that social interaction in person with the owner right uh or yeah

even if you're the seller right that that interaction you have with a potential uh buyer and that stuff can

never be replaced eBay is is the number one you know auction site uh and it

probably always will be but um there's something to be said about that in person uh transaction and I think you

know car shows and card stores will always give you that where you know on

eBay you buy something on eBay right unless it's a graded card uh you gotta

hope you're getting what you what you're seeing you know and yeah you hear stories where that doesn't always that

doesn't always have any other thing it may not it may not even be a switcherooski type of deal but you now

you're relying on a mail carrier or a shipping company to get that there

safely and that doesn't always happen either so an in-person transaction

there's there's a there's a price on that you can't you can't put and that's why I love card stores card shows uh

because you you get that from them but uh you know that's just my sort of my

take on it and again eBay's a you know like that episode I titled it right the

blessing and the curse there's Pro there's pluses and minuses uh to it it

allowed me some freedoms and I I you know I kind of moved on from the store

and traveled more and did more stuffed out of 25 26 year old was doing at those

times and um and and then I might you know I progressed in the hobby uh from there so

uh but also you know it you're competing with this invisible uh Empire and you

know millions of other card stores now too as you know as a seller right you've

got to be your price has got to be competitive and and that's that's a good

thing right you know competition makes things more affordable and uh even when

you're buying stuff as well so it's a two-sided a two-sided coin so

well thanks for sharing that John I appreciate that yeah well you know you asked me questions I always say to guess

this is all it's all about you know kind of one last question as we kind of come down the wire here obviously you know

grading uh I'm I'm a guy that loves buying and selling Grady cards submitting grading cards I mean what do

you think right now you know obviously we saw things change in the grading part of the hobby uh they were getting

backlogged so they start raising prices or complete completely shutting down levels now we're seeing things kind of

come back to sort of close to where they were uh pre-pandemic pre uh Crescendo

you know just your general thoughts at where we are in the grading space price

wise turnaround times are getting uh quicker again I mean as you see who's

the sponsor of this show is that five to seven days that's insane um yeah you know and even PSA is getting

uh better they're not that quick but they're better than uh they at one point than they were so just some of your

general thoughts of as someone I know who does slabs buy slab sells them keeps

them just you're you're what you think of where we are grading wise well great great I I love these topics

of grading I love the topic talking about grading companies an old grading thing is just awesome to me because for

me it's always been like the great equalizer because old guys wouldn't talk to me when I was a kid and didn't tell

me about things so it grading gives you an opportunity at home to buy a card

that you know has somebody else a professional's eyes on it and gives it an authentic grade and a

grade you know you can you can Bank on it and it and it you don't have to gamble on buying a raw card anymore not

that buying ungraded cards is wrong but as someone who's new to if you're new to the Hobby or when I was younger like no

one talked to me like that's just it was so nice for me so I've always I mean

it's easy to say now but when the grading cards went through the roof and everyone you know during the pandemic it

was 50 card and it I don't know everyone wasn't gonna saying they weren't gonna come down back down of course they were

going to come back down to 10 and 12 again and 15. now with the inflation

thing you know I think they're going to go back down to ten dollars I think you did an interview with um Ezra I don't

know the PSA guy I forgot his name but oh yeah why not Turner why would they be

why would they be higher than they were back then it's not like things have changed that much so to me let's get

these things back down to ten dollars so we can get collectors back in and the modern collectors aren't going to be

spending more than 10 bucks to get a card graded that's a base card but collectors you know we will spend ten

dollars to get a base card even if it comes back in an eight just to have it slabbed in like Museum nice it displays

well there's something you said for that SGC I just sent in 20 cards I got a 20 some order in for them

um I'm all about the grading procedure I absolutely love it I obviously there's

ways that my whole thing right now is taking advantage of their system it's it's not perfect you know I appeal as

everything in vintage it's so different than modern cards and Ultra Modern cards you can't tell it I can't tell the

difference between a nine and a ten even some eights to tens you need a magnifying glass that's not my how my I

collect cards and I and I'm never gonna collect cards like that um doesn't mean I don't own some tens

because I I think those I think the value in tens are is always going to be

there because that's what all these new collectors have been born and raised into these this ten

2020 card is worth 10 times the nine that's just it's not gonna go anywhere

but if I'm a collector okay give me the nine for ten dollars rather than the 10

for 100. um yeah sgc's killing it PSA is killing

it um CSG has really nice Labs I wish PSA would change their slab quality as far

as their glass the plastic they use I don't care for it in SGC they're doing something different uh Nat said not to

cook but I said they're they're doing I you know we didn't really get into too many specifics so we'll have to wait and

wait and see and uh you know uh I think you're gonna see a few of the company you know it's like Burger King and

McDonald's right when one of them uh comes out a new the other one's going to

uh come out with something new and and so I think we're gonna see you know

we're seeing AI now being used more as as well I don't ever want you know I've

said this during that conversation when that I picked his brain like I was I liked his answer I don't really ever

really want to see AI only uh grading one of my cards or you know uh I like

the human element that someone's picking the card up and looking at it and you

know Nat said like we'll use it to some extent but it's never going to replace a

human grading one of our our customers cards so we don't we don't I we don't

even think that's really logistically possible to grade a card uh

in this you know fairly and indiscriminately uh just by putting it sort of you know in a scanner or or in a

computer system so um you know I again technology gets

better and better every year um but uh I still like that human element and it was nice hearing that

kind of talk about like they're not going there they're going to use AI more for for certain things but they're

they're not going to completely not uh have a human uh not look at your car

well John I I take the exact opposite stance see I'm totally on board give me

AI 100 I don't want anyone touching my cards if I don't know I'm totally

different on that I I would love to be able to send a vintage card in and it's

the same grade every single time and I know yeah the consistency yeah just give

me consistency and I don't need a human to look at it I I don't I don't I don't care I just well that's I I don't even I

don't I'm not even disagreeing with you but that's that's my deal that's my point I don't know yeah if anyone can do

now tag you know I don't know if you know much about Ted oh yeah yeah definitely you're supposed to do is

using AI only but here's the problem though uh Dylan there they won't degrade

anything uh older than 2004. I know I went on there I'm like dude so the

technology that is out yeah they just someone hasn't figured it out and I think Nat Turner is wrong I think I

think that I think the technology obviously has to exist there's so much crazy technology out there I just think

the money to get to to apply that to every card is probably the Dilemma it's

a money thing that I thought I'm not that Turner I'm not I just I just would

love I'm the opposite of you on that scale I want AI well I'm old I'm older

and stubborner and old school so maybe maybe I'm gonna blame it I'm gonna blame

it on that oh I like it you know but it's good it's good to talk about these things it's fun like and that's the

beauty of the happy Dylan we we don't have to agree exactly across the board

but we can still love the hobby be friends and get along yeah and and uh

enjoy talking about it uh just the same so uh I appreciate it again I respect

your point of view right and and uh opinions no one's wrong right facts you can be wrong yeah opinions no one no one

is wrong then so neither one of us are are wrong when it comes to an opinion

but uh Dylan uh thank you for coming on you know you said you were honored I'm honored that you you came on uh give

everyone that's listening out there or watching here uh where they can find what you're doing your content uh

anything you want to share take your time uh get that stuff out there thanks John um yeah thanks thanks again

for having me on the show and anybody's listening if you want to look at my uh YouTube it's double the vintage baseball

cards um I just do I do long videos I sit there and just talk about anything and

everything um I show lots of baseball cards it's just the collector's channel it's just really fun

um and then also I'm gonna be doing a podcast and a video YouTube as well with

my friend Adam from Splendid Sports ever we're going to be doing one every other week and we're gonna be having

conversation just like this about grading um about I really like design so we're

going to be talking about um you know 1960 best design 1950 all opinions and just fun stuff nothing

negative no negativity there's no negativity is not welcome on my channel

in my mind I just like I can't handle it doesn't make sense this is a hobby and this is an enjoyable experience that we

are allowed to have a opinions but opinions shouldn't shouldn't bubble your

blood like me and John just talked about we can have two two opinions about AI

but it's not gonna I'm not mad in any way I can just agree and he can agree with his side that's where this show is

gonna go so if you guys want to see that check out my channel and Splendid Sports as well and then am I allowed to bring

up my you my eBay store name yep go ahead throw it out there okay my eBay store 314 14 sports cards you guys I

sell Commons um and inserts that I've collected my whole life open packs for years and

years all that stuff's on there um be if you guys buy something shoot me

a message maybe I'll send you something extra um it's just a fun way for me to sell

that stuff and buy stuff I collect so

it was a pleasure it was a blast it's awesome well likewise we'll have

obviously we'll have you back on back again and maybe we'll have you you know once you get your show going I'm sure

it's gonna be great uh we'll have you in Splendid Sports uh come on maybe we'll do kind of a a dual a do interview and

talk about content creation and how the shows go and and all that fun stuff so

looking forward uh to that as well that would be awesome and the hobby is

the people I love love it yeah well thanks Dylan we'll talk to you

soon okay thanks John appreciate it have a good one you too

Ep.211 w/ Dylan Davis/Double D Vintage-Having fun in the hobby

Dylan Davis

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